I think a lot of this has to do with how you prioritize your spending.
This.
I posted on another thread about some of my colleagues suddenly looking at my lifestyle and being like 'huh, someone CAN be doing well, what I am doing not-well?" But it's true.
Look: on the surface, if you see me, I'm in my early 30s, with a large-ish and full-of-gorgeous-antiques house, dress in cashmere sweaters and wear pearls and diamonds on a regular basis, and we eat excellent food that we reguarly invite people over to share (duck magret in a brandy and peach sauce, anyone?)
But: the jewelry is all inherited from my grandmother (and if I sold it, I'd get maybe 20% of what you'd pay in store for it - worth of jewelry is a funny thing). The house is our only large expense, and both of us prefer to stay home than go out, so it made sense to have a house we wanted to stay in and instead cut our going out and travelling budget, since that's what we enjoy. The antiques are hand-me-downs or refinished dirt-cheap kijiji finds. Our main hobbies are gardening (which, even if you go bonkers on tools and landscaping, at least breaks even if you're growing food) and curling up in front of the fireplace with our cat and a good book (library! also time with spouse!). My husband mixes amazing cocktails (20% the cost of a cocktail in a restaurant, and much, much better!), I cook (less than 20% the cost of going to a restaurant!), we spend time with our daughter, we donate time and effort to our community... we genuinely don't spend much money outside of our mortgage and car maintenance.
Look: we live in a spot known as a 'vacation spot' (15 minutes farther from work than most of my colleagues, nestled between a climbing mountain with a clifface and a large lake). Last summer, I brought my swimsuit to work regularly, and switched into it under my clothes before leaving. Then I picked up my daughter at daycare and we spent an hour at the beach before going home for an excellent dinner, and then she'd go to bed and I'd have 2 hours with my husband (cocktails on the patio with candles and books, anyone?) before we headed up. Beaches and cocktails all evening make it feel a LOT more like a summer-long vacation... Expenses: house in a good location, daycare and car (associated with work), 1 swimsuit for the summer, homemade food and cocktail ingredients... And yet I've had visitors comment that they 'don't know how we make ends meet' and 'they couldn't afford this' and 'are so jealous'. Universally, these are people who make more than we do, but they go out for dinner/drinks 4-5 nights per week (100$ per night, each, easy), and so no, they couldn't afford our lifestyle WHILE STILL PAYING FOR THEIRS. That's the key.